25 Sep 2016

North Carolina afro jazz artist, Brother Ah (playing trumpet, flute,
jazz French horn.) made a name in the late sixties thanks to a clever
and innovative use of non-western music. During this crucial period he
started studies of Indian and Japanese music. In 1970 is written “Sound
Awareness” (published 5 years later). It’s an impressive medley of free
jazz improvisations, hand percussions, eastern buzzing sitar drones and
voices. This release features an obvious meditative, enchanting “cosmic”
atmosphere. This afropsychedelica manifest is followed “Move Ever
Onward” (originally released in 1975 privately) which carries on the
same ritualistic, spiritual acclamations but with less emphasis on
experimentations. An important material for those who enjoy East meets
West musical experiences. ….

This isn’t quite what one would
expect from a man in Sun Ra’s orbit. Quite frankly, this is mannered
music, composed and arranged in side-long suites, sort of an
African-tinged Porgy & Bess. The powerful voice of Aiisha kicks off
each side with a sort of lyrical narration – you know the sort: lots of
images of cotton fields and hot baked streets, fairly typical for this
sort of ‘60s ensemble. What isn’t as typical is the instrumentation.
Besides the expected African percussion, koto and other Asian
instruments (including a sitar) are heard. One of the most affecting
pieces might be “Celestial Strings,” a duet of koto and kora backed with
tumbling percussion. Like most of the album, the effect is subtly
jarring and just different enough to be unique…by allmusic…..

The
renowned French horn player known as Brother Ah (aka Robert Northern)
is one of the most prolific and respected musicians in the history of
jazz music, with a recorded output spanning more than 30 years.

Born
in 1934 and raised in the south Bronx, Brother Ah was playing jazz
trumpet as early as fifteen years of age. Following a classical French
horn education at Austria’s Vienna State Academy, he emerged in the late
‘50s and established himself as a skilled and consistent session
musician, playing with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Radio City
Music Hall Orchestra, and numerous Broadway theater orchestras.

Brother
Ah recorded well into the ‘60s with some of the most illustrious names
in the genre, including Donald Byrd, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane,
Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Gil Evans and, perhaps most influentially,
Sun Ra. In 1969, Ah formed his own group, the Musical Sound Awareness
Ensemble, and released several works under his own name from 1974
onward. In the late ‘60s, his interest in non-western music developed,
and his ‘70s recordings, incorporated elements of Eastern and “Third
World” music, fusing them with jazz structures.

In 1975, Ah
released his second LP, Move Ever Onward on his own label, Divine
Records. A more straightforward affair, the record infused Indian,
Japanese and African folk music elements into more traditional jazz
structures than Ah’s debut LP. Of its eight tracks, four include vocals
by the artists Dara, Aiisha, Kwesi Gilbert Northern and Ayida Tengemana.
The instrumental tracks provide more colorful moments, such as the
cacophonous percussion on “Boundless Rhythm” and the hypnotic kora and
koto notes on “Enthusiasm” and “Celestial Strings”. …

Ex Sun Ra
band member Brother Ah back with an early 80’s sensual, beautiful
melodic and groovy album combining the best of buesy / jazz standards to
classical “eastern” music, “exotic” acoustic instrumentations.
“Motherless Child” is soul music, including a plaintive bluesy flavour
sung by a powerful, melodic and tragic woman voice. The song is
accompanied by an harp / flute duet. In “Sekou” , the traditional afro
tendance of the band is more evident, featuring ethno percussions, funky
bass lines. The title track expresses a the mellow fusion jazz side of
the band, writting as a ballad with ravishing female vocals, afro
grooves. Among their most accessible effort and not their best despite
that is perfectly performed, with lot of passion and a good technical
background. It’s an important “world jazz” essay for collectors and
could be a nice musical exploration for progressive fans. I’m almost
sure that classic jazz fans would give 4 or 5 stars. According to me
their best remain the freaked out “Sound Awareness” and the adventurous
“Move ever Onward”. …

“The music and images came to me during
deep meditation. As I was transcending, I felt as though I was leaving
my body. I began to hear celestial ascending soft music…I began to hear
loud voices, powerful rhythms, and birds. I felt as though I was being
asked profound questions. I began to confess to the ancestors my lack of
faith in accepting my musical spiritual journey.”

So writes
Robert Northern, under the name “Brother Ah,” in the liner notes to the
new reissue of Sound Awareness, his debut solo recording. Originally
released on the Strata East label in 1972, the record is reissued this
week by Manufactured Recordings alongside his 1975 LP Move Ever Onward
and 1983’s Key to Nowhere. Containing searching spiritual jazz, long
atmospheric passages, and African, Indian, and Asian influences, the
trio of records serve as in introduction to Brother Ah’s work, prefacing
a forthcoming 3LP collection of unreleased material to be released by
Manufactured.

Classically trained in his youth, Brother Ah
played with the top players of the jazz vanguard — among them Donald
Byrd, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis,
Cannonball Adderley, Gil Evans — and joined up with the Sun Ra Arkestra.
In 1969 he formed his own group, inspired by his time with Ra and
“sound awareness” visions, issuing a series of remarkable albums. Sound
Awareness, begins with proto-New Age swells of sound, punctuated by
Brother Ah’s French horn, and concludes with the rousing “Beyond
Yourself,” a seven-part epic featuring Max Roach rapping about the power
of love as the M’Boom percussion ensemble rattles behind him and
Brother Ah leads a 90-voice choir. With Move Ever Onward, Brother Ah and
his ensemble shifted into more conventional, but no less deep,
spiritual jazz waters, featuring poetry, sitar, and “space beam”
(whatever it is, it sounds wonderful). Key to Nowhere continues with the
cosmic poetry, vocalist Nataska Hasan Yousssef reciting the words of
Brother Ah’s wife and collaborator Kwesi Northern.

Brother Ah
went on to a long career of teaching and to host the influential radio
show The Jazz Collectors on WPFW. His music, from this especially
fertile time in the ’70s and ’80s, still resonates, his goal of
enlightening listeners “to the potential of sound and its capability to
enhance healing” echoing some three or four decades later. words ….

Cosmic
righteousness from Brother Ahh – an enigmatic musician who worked
briefly with Sun Ra, and continued an exploration of the sonic heavens
on his own! This rare 1975 album features Ahh’s Sound Awareness ensemble
– a 25 piece group that features a host of voices set to percussion,
flutes, and other intimate and evocative instrumentation. The feel’s
quite hard to describe – kind of a cross between Sun Ra and Moondog,
with the righteous style of vocalization that you might find on some of
the Max Roach experiments with voices, recorded in the relaxed and
expressive style of the early AACM – all of which means it’s a great
little record, with a very striking approach. In 1975, Ah released his
second LP, Move Ever Onward on his own label, Divine Records. A more
straightforward affair, the record infused Indian, Japanese and African
folk music elements into more traditional jazz structures than Ah’s
debut LP. Of its eight tracks, four include vocals by the artists Dara,
Aiisha, Kwesi Gilbert Northern and Ayida Tengemana. The instrumental
tracks provide more colorful moments, such as the cacophonous percussion
on 'Boundless Rhythm’ and the hypnotic kora and koto notes on
'Enthusiasm’ and 'Celestial Strings’ ….

Wikipedia

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